Global Trends and Transformations in Culture, Business, and Technology, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 4

The Changing Landscape of Global Affairs

A Multipolar World Order

Since the end of the Cold War, we have witnessed the formation of a new multipolar world ruled by several centers of political and economic decision making [1]. The collapse of the Soviet Union and communist regimes in the 1990s marks the end of global bipolarity that had started shortly after the Second World War. While during the Cold War the two undisputable superpowers namely the United States and the Soviet Union dominated the world arena, in the past two decades, a multipolar system has been developing where numerous nations including the European countries, Russia, China, India, Japan, and Brazil are progressively gaining importance [2]. The dynamism of the new ...